Joe Torre

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT JOE TORRE - PAGE 3

In his 13th major-league season, Lee Smith is already the major league's all-time save leader. The 35-year-old right-hander is showing no signs of slowing down. "He's been great so far and he's throwing the ball harder than ever," St. Louis manager Joe Torre said Monday night after Smith recorded his eighth save of the season and the 363rd of his career. "When he was walking off the field he told me that he has found his fastball again," Torre said. Smith saved the game for starter Joe Magrane (1-2)

- 1990 record: 70-92, sixth place - Manager: Joe Torre - Strengths: The bullpen has Lee Smith, still among the toughest closers. Ozzie Smith has won 11 straight Gold Gloves and remains one of the flashier shortstops around, but at 36 he has lost range. Jose Oquendo is a nifty fielder, and Pedro Guerrero provides most of the Cards` (little) muscle. The Cardinals have a potentially productive outfield with Bernard Gilkey, Ray Lankford and Felix Jose. - Weaknesses: The rotation is so bad that the No. 2 starter, Jose DeLeon, lost 19 games and had a 4.43 ERA a year ago. The lineup can`t possibly sustain the loss of Willie McGee, Terry Pendleton and Vince Coleman.

The Sports Xchange Torre to manage Team USA in 2013 Classic It's an about-face on a technicality -- Joe Torre plans to manage again next season. The former Yankees and Dodgers manager, Torre is currently MLB executive vice president for baseball operations, but he's accepted an appointment to manage Team USA in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Torre last managed in 2010 with the Dodgers, ending a three-year run in Los Angeles that followed his record run with the Yankees, which included 12 postseason appearances and four World Series championships.

If the Yankees plan to keep calling on Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning, they might want to think carefully about who would be handing him the ball. Rivera isn't happy that Joe Torre could be out as manager in New York and said the team's decision will be factored into whether he returns. "I don't feel good about it," Rivera said Wednesday, two days after the Yankees' third straight exit in the first round of the playoffs. "I don't see why they're even thinking (about letting Torre go)

The six-minute drive to work impressed Don Zimmer as much as anything else on his first day with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. "I don't think you could have written a script any better at the age of 73 years old, to come home and have the job that I have and feel like you're wanted," Zimmer said on the first day of workouts in St. Petersburg, Fla., for pitchers and catchers. "It's a tremendous thing for me and my family." Zimmer was hired in January as a senior baseball adviser after spending the last eight seasons with the New York Yankees as manager Joe Torre's bench coach.

"Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way": What Chicago baseball fans probably do not need is an entire movie about the New York Yankees manager and his path to the World Series. But this film, made for Showtime (8 p.m.) and produced in part by an outfit called Torre Productions, has a jaunty charm that manages to carry it through many moments of maudlin self-indulgence. When he took over the Yankees in 1996, Torre (played by Paul Sorvino in a minor key) had spent more seasons in the big leagues--18 playing and 19 managing--without going to the Series than anyone in baseball history.

Joe Torre , Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox headline the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, which was released Monday. They will be voted on by the 16-member Expansion Era Veterans Committee Dec. 9 during the annual Winter Meetings in Orlando , Fla. The ballot also includes former manager Billy Martin and players Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey , Tommy John , Dave Parker, Dan Quisenberry and Ted Simmons . Additionally,...

The retired Tony La Russa will serve as the manager of the National League All-Star team for the 2012 Midsummer Classic at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on July 10. The longtime manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, La Russa retired after his club's 2011 World Series Championship. La Russa also led the NL All-Stars in 2005 and 2007. It will mark his sixth Midsummer Classic managerial assignment, matching Joe Torre's total and surpassed only by Hall of Famers Casey Stengel (10)

Insisting he's not worried about interference from George Steinbrenner, Joe Torre on Thursday accepted baseball's least secure job--manager of the New York Yankees. "If I concern myself with what-ifs and how I'm going to handle it, then I shouldn't be here," Torre said at Yankee Stadium after his two-year, $1.05 million deal was announced. Bob Watson, the team's new general manager, said the deal was finalized Wednesday night in Tampa during a meeting that included himself, Torre and Steinbrenner.

Trip to minors in order Steve Svekis, Sun Sentinel It's a stretch, not unlike the ones Don Mattingly made regularly as a Yankees Gold Glover in the 1980s. I'm not understanding what his credentials are for keeping his current hitting coach job, much less garnering such a major promotion. Key cogs Matt Kemp, James Loney and Russell Martin have all seen their OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage) decrease under his stewardship. Kemp's has dropped precipitously in 2010, while Loney's and Martin's have trended downward ever since Mattingly got the job at the 2008 All-Star break.